American cars in Britain

[Cartman]

Dec 6, 2021 20:08:44 GMT Steve Austin said:

I've never liked American cars.  With the exception of the sporty cars (Camaro, Mustang etc), they are ugly box shapes.  I thought they always look out of place here in the UK and always wondered why people would buy them, both here and in the USA.

I'm the same with French cars. I just don't like them at all.

[Arthur Pringle]

Other than Thomas Garrett's Shelby petrol gobbler in The Sweeney I think of the Minder episode 'Broken Arrow' & the customised Corvette Stingray.

Ken Morley, best known for playing Reg Holdsworth in Coronation Street has ( or had ) a collection of yank cars, at least two of which were coloured pink.

[D.C. Burtonshaw]

My favourite era for American cars is the 60's as that was when they seemed to be following European styling trends and went on to make neater compact cars for a while, and the OTT tail fins and huge grilles had disappeared. Sportier versions of the compacts soon followed.

It was also the era when the popular performance Muscle Cars were produced, with all the makers getting in on the act after the success of the Mustang.

Then it all seemed to go to OTT again with the gaudy 70's barges, which were huge tanks initially, then downsizing with some compact cars making a return again after the 1973 and 1979 oil crisises.

The Professionals had a few U.S cars in the series episodes too; Usually villains cars.

[Cartman]

Yes the 60s American cars were quite smart, they often resembled scaled up Mark 1 and 2 Cortinas. The ones from the early 50s weren't bad, again, putting British ones into th he picture, think enlarged Mark 1 and 2 Consul/Zephyr. From about 1955 to 61 ish, though they started to have increasingly bizarre styling, the ultimate was the 59 Cadillac with its huge tail fins.

Some of the early 70s barges I quite like, my favourites of this period are Plymouth s and Dodges, which were widely used as police cars and taxis. 

[Villain]

I've always had a soft spot for certain American cars of the '60s and '70s, partly because of the classic films  TV shows of the period like The Streets Of San Francisco, The Invaders, Bullitt, Vanishing Point etc, and remember very well a couple of 'yank' dealers in and around Hammersmith on family visits and later on when I lived there myself. The old Harold Radford premises in King Street became a yank dealer for a while and there was usually a Camaro or a Firebird behind the glass when I walked past. The other place, further up Askew Road towards Uxbridge Road was often very busy with a variety of stuff, plenty of Mustangs, Camaros and Firebirds etc but often as not the bigger Cadillacs and Buicks.

The 'coke bottle' styling found favour very quickly from about '64 / '65 onwards with Buick, Chevy, Dodge, Plymouth and the period reviews in the British magazines of the time heaped a lot of praise on the styling and value for money they offered. It's probably not that well known that a large number of RHD versions of these cars were built in Canada for the British and Austrailian markets. A young chap on the Pistonheads forum picked up a RHD  '66 Chevy Impala four door last year for £10k which has only needed some gentle fettling, it's a lot of car for £10k. Before I bought my Maser back in June I was looking at a couple of Chevy Corvairs, the improved 1965 onwards version with the much prettier styling than the original model. This is one of them, I was sorely tempted....




A mate of mine at work has been a serial yank car buyer for at least twenty years and has had loads, mostly Firebirds and Camaros and his current project is a '73 Camaro which he is turning into a 'Santa Pod special' with huge rear wheel arches and fat tyres etc.

Villain 

[Del Boy]

American cars in general have grown on me over the years and I'm now a fan. There have been many famous cars from film and tv adored over the years. I get what Steve Austin says though in that they can look a bit out of place on our roads.

[Villain]

Jan 7, 2022 19:57:00 GMT Del Boy said:

American cars in general have grown on me over the years and I'm now a fan. There have been many famous cars from film and tv adored over the years. I get what Steve Austin says though in that they can look a bit out of place on our roads.

A lot of it is down to size obviously, even a standard '64 - '68 Mustang notchback is a tight-ish fit in a standard sized garage in the UK.

This old Brockbank cartoon says it all....





Villain 

[Cartman]

Yes, size is a consideration, a Corvair is one of the smaller ones, but it's probably similar in size to a Granada or a Jag. Probably why VW were successful in the US with the Beetle. You probably had to have either a big US car or a Beetle, and if you wanted a small car, then a Beetle was your only option.

[Cartman]

I've just been looking at some stuff on YouTube about Manchester in the 60s, and one of the photo streams was of Clayton and Beswick. On one of the photos, in Ashton Old Road, in the early 60s, was an early 50s Buick. 

It really stood out among the Anglias, Minors etc, and the backdrop of terraced streets, corner shops and factories and there were that many cars in this inner city district at that time anyway.

What was that doing there?